Joe Odagiri

Joe Odagiri (小田切 譲,Odagiri Jō?) played Yusuke Godai, the titular rider of Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000). Kamen Rider Kuuga being the first show in the Heisei era and marking the revival of the Kamen Rider Series. Joe Odagiri is also the first actor who has played a Kamen Rider to have been born after the premiere of the original Kamen Rider in 1971.

Despite Kuuga going on to make later minor appearances, including in recent crossover movies, Joe Odagiri has yet to reprise his role.

Unfortunetly, his one year old son passed away due to intestinal ileus (a disruption in the intestinal movement) on April 20th.

Notes

While on an episode of King’s Brunch, a late morning and afternoon news talk show on the Japanese channel TBS, Joe Odagiri was questioned about his role on Kamen Rider Kuuga. He revealed that he hated the show because it was not a project he liked. However, the producer told him that they wanted to “destroy the image that Kamen Rider had until then”. Joe Odagiri then thought that was something he was good at and it became his motivation to take on the role of Yusuke Godai. The episode was aired on April 26th, 2014.[1]